I just lost two games in a row on the Free Internet Chess Server. Bummer. Aside from stubbing my toe in that regard, Brandi and I will certainly enjoy our last day-and-a-half here in Houston/Katy at my parent's place.

I spent some of the afternoon watching my children play in the backyard while I sat by the swimming pool, smoked my pipe, and read a bit of 1 Clement from my newly-acquired copy of The Apostolic Fathers. It's amazing how tobacco, moving water, the sound of your children playing, and a good book can all work in tandem to soothe the proverbial soul.

Thanks to my brother, Sha, the kids now have a shiny, new Nintendo DS. Daniel especially is a video game fiend, or at least he'd like to be. We try to limit his play, otherwise he'd literally eat with that thing in his hand. For the most part, our kids don't consume much media, and we'd like to keep it that way. They have an innate love for books, and their weekly trip to the library is often the highlight of their week. Like any kid, they'd love to have unfettered access to TV, the Internet, and video games (just like any kid would love to have candy 24/7), but we've found that by putting hedges around their media use, they've grown to love old fashioned things like coloring, reading, and even the lost art of playing outside.

The past two weeks have been fun. We've had several large family gatherings. I've spent time with my best friends. And I've had the opportunity to play a decent amount of chess and read quite a bit. Alas, we'll head home tomorrow and get back to our day-to-day routine.

January looks to be a busy month. In addition to a wedding I'll be shooting our church's annual missions conference and Brandi will be starting an Antioch-endorsed women's study by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Hopefully I'll pick up my guitar lessons again and, as usual, spend as much time as possible reading (I got a stack of books for Christmas).

Adios!